Motherhood
by LittleMissCloverFromDistrict2
Summary: Ginny isn't letting Lily go to the ballet for reasons it takes time for even herself to find out. Will she ever say yes?


2014

"I want to see a ballerina dance, mummy!" Lily announced happily, pulling the pink and blue covers up to her chin. She grinned at her mother with one tooth missing.

"One day, honey, one day," Ginny told her little girl. She looked rather impatient.

"But I want to see them now!" She complained angrily. Ginny sighed.

"One day," Ginny told her. Lily stiffed a yawn.

"Tomorrow I turn seven! Could it be a birthday surprise?" Lily asked excitedly.

"You never know." She grinned, kissing her daughter affectionately on the forehead.

"Good night, mummy. I love you," Lily said softly.

"Good night, Lily. I love you too," Ginny told her. Lily squished her into a big hug. She smiled at her before dimming the light and walking down the hall to bid goodnight to Albus and James.

2017

Lily ran outside to get the mail, as that was her job now Albus and James were both at Hogwarts. She scooped it up, bored. It was mostly boring muggle things, like sneaker drives and car washes. There was advertisement for a new dance group called the Pink Poodles – fun exercise! Lily thought it was amazing what muggles did for fun. But suddenly, there was a flyer for a concert that caught her eye. It was on the 23rd of September, only a week away. With new excitement reigning her, she galloped up to the front step into the house.

"What's up, chum?" Ginny's voice echoed from the kitchen where she was cleaning dishes. Lily sighed.

"There's some ballerinas performing at the local town hall. It's only a week away! Can we go?" Lily pleaded. Ginny hesitated for a moment, before replying,

"Well, maybe sweetie. We don't have much muggle money, you know that," Ginny said sternly, coming out of the kitchen to the lounge room where Lily was.

"I know, I know. We're poor and out of our minds from a muggle's point of view." Lily sighed.

"I know we're poor by muggle standards but who told you we're out of our minds to muggles?" Ginny asked suspiciously.

"James," Lily replied, fingering her mother's wand. Ginny snatched her wand out of her daughter's hand.

"Lily, still, it's a no," Ginny sighed, "We just don't have the money!"

"So? I'll do jobs for the neighbours, I'll do anything!" Lily pleaded.

"No! That's final!" Ginny yelled. Lily narrowed her eyebrows and gave her mother a death stare shortly before dragging herself up to her room. Ginny watched her youngest child and only daughter walk up the stairs with great interest, a small sneaky smile playing on her lips.

2019

Lily's knuckles were slowly turning white as she tightly clutched her trolley. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail that reached down to her shoulders. Her freckles stood out greatly against her pale skin. Her eyes were narrowed slightly and her cheeks had flushed bright red. She felt her mother's arm wrap around her.

"No, sweetie," Ginny whispered in her ear. Lily ignored her mother and started to pretend to be very interested in her owl Lucky. Her brother James came past in a rush.

"Come on, Lils!" He said happily, clutching his trolley tight. His owl Moony gave a loud hoot before he ran at the wall. Lily gave a little gasp of surprise at seeing him disappear, despite seeing people do that since as long as she could remember. Next came her brother Albus and father Harry running through the barrier. Lily went to run at it but Ginny held her back.

"I know you want to see the ballet at Christmas, honey," She said soothingly. Lily nodded stiffly.

"I wish we could, I really do. But we just don't have enough money. Please honey, I'm really sorry, I am." Ginny pleaded. Tears pricked the corners of Lily's eyes but she swallowed them down and turned to her mother.

"You don't understand!" Lily yelled, "Adults never do! They just think we should all get along and be happy! I'm eleven, not five!" Tears spilled out of Lily's eyes as she collapsed into her mother's arms. Ginny stared hopelessly down at her daughter.

"Oh honey, I'm so, so, so sorry!" Ginny cried, stroking her hand through her daughter's hair affectionately. Lily looked up at her mum, one hand shakily clutching her trolley.

"Together?" She half whispered, half cried. Ginny gave an agreeing nod and put her arm around Lily's waist. Lily placed both hands on her trolley and began to run at the wall. With a flash they were in platform nine and three quarters. Lily looked around at the many people whom she would spend the next years of her life with.

2021

Lily muttered words over and over again into her pillow. Her Hogsmeade permission slip lay crumpled up in a ball on her wooden desk. She heard her door creak open and her mother enter.

"Sweetie?" Ginny asked calmly. Lily pulled an old blue and pink blanket over her head to muffle her rather loud crying.

"You can sign my Hogsmeade slip, can't you?" Lily demanded angrily, "But I guess you couldn't even get tickets to a ballet that was performed by witches and wizards, can you?" Lily threw her copy of Hogwarts: A history at her mother's head which narrowly missed. Ginny opened her mouth to tell Lily off but decided quickly now wasn't the time to get angry at her thirteen year old daughter.

"Honey, I will sign it," Ginny said firmly, scrunching the Hogsmeade slip and scrawling her signature on it with a red marker that was lying abandoned on Lily's desk. Lily glared at her mum.

"You're the reason I'm always so unhappy," She declared moodily, "Get out!" With a nod Ginny went out of the room, severely afraid of what would happen next.

2023

Lily bounced around happily, for she had just been made prefect. She showed off happily to her Mum, Dad, and her brothers Albus and James, for they had never been prefects her Head Boys or Girl. Her mother was immensely proud, as was her father.

"Our little prefect," They would coo when someone mentioned her name, before telling the whole story of what happened when the prefect owl arrived. Lily was happy her parents were proud, but really wanted a present for being prefect, particularly including watching a romantic ballet with a boyfriend she was planning to find soon. But that did not look like it was going to happen. Not now, not ever, with Ginny as her mother.

2025

"I'm seventeen today, mum!" Lily yelled happily, bounding down the stairs. When she was half way down, she shook her head and apparated to the kitchen, where Ginny was cooking up a storm. She waved at her mother. Ginny gave a stern look but only sighed for now Lily was an adult.

"So, mum…" Lily grinned. Ginny heaved a sigh.

"Yes?" She asked. Lily smirked happily.

"I've decided that we're going to the ballet, and there's nothing you can do about it." Lily said firmly. Ginny rolled her eyes; of course that was it.

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Lily said happily, elbowing her mother playfully in the shoulder. Ginny heaved a sigh, lines clearly showing her face. At the relatively young wizarding world age of forty four, her Quidditch career when she was younger was taking its toll; there were more lines engraved in her face then there should be, he got tired easily than most, little things like that. And yet she had the bounciest, most jack in the box like seventeen year old daughter. Ginny suddenly realised something she never had; how similar Lily was to her. And how similar she was to her own mother, Molly. She remembered how restricted she had been at the age of seventeen, as a result of post war. Even her childhood was slightly traumatising. Always wanting to go outside, but being restricted from fear You Know How would pop out of a bush and kill you. The fear of the tale of the boy who lived. She had spent most of her childhood trapped inside, not knowing when it would be safe outside. She realised her mother's protectiveness had come out in her. With a loud sigh, Ginny said the words her daughter had been waiting to hear since she was six years of age.

"You can go to the ballet. I say yes."

And that's how a few weeks later they were sitting in a theater together watching the ballet. Music flowed through the room, carrying the dancers in a graceful dance. The music almost appeared to be visible. When they spun around, it felt as though it was spinning with them. When the men tossed their lady partners into the air, it seemed it jump up with them. Everyone in the room felt a deep seeded need to join into the dance. Few were able to resist for long. Ginny smiled happily as she saw her daughter's eyes stuck to the dancers, trying to resist the urge to dance with them.


End file.
